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>the fact that we have not detected or seen any evidence of alien probes in the solar system suggests there have been no probe-building civilizations in the Mil
by ddeck 13y ago
>the fact that we have not detected or seen any evidence of alien probes in the solar system suggests there have been no probe-building civilizations in the Milky Way in the last few million years
How does that compute exactly?
There are ~300 billion stars in the Milky Way, which is ~100k light years across. I can't even begin to think about the travelling salesman problem involved, but even with many probes, many civilizations, and travelling close to the speed of light, I'm guessing it would take some serious time to get around to visiting each star.
- Thrymr 13y ago> the Milky Way, which is ~100 light years across. Make that ~100,000 light years.
- ddeck 13y agoAh, you beat me to the edit. Indeed, 100k
- Luc 13y agoSelf-replicating, though. Exponential growth in number of probes.
- ddeck 13y agoSure, but the conclusion drawn was that it indicated "no probe-building civilizations"
- scotty79 13y agoI think "probe" in that conclusion was a shorthand for "self-replicating space probe built for the purpose of utilizing exponential growth for scouting galaxy in reasonable time"
- johnchristopher 13y agoLimited by the actual resources to support that exponential growth.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]